A Reluctant Memoir

by Robert Ballagh

Making his name as a Pop artist in the late 1960s and 70s, Robert Ballagh quickly achieved an international reputation. With little formal artistic training, he triumphed in his field despite often formidable hostility. His work was also strikingly topical and political, playing with classic images by Goya or Delacroix to express outrage about the situation in Northern Ireland.

But it is his series of realistic portraits of writers, politicians and fellow artists - often searingly inquisitive and moving in equal measure- that have won him lasting fame. His subjects include Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett, Francis Crick, Harold Pinter and Fidel Castro. And his remarkable self-portraits unsparingly document the process of his own aging.

This is also a story of Ireland over the past sixty years, its violence, hypocrisy and immobility as well as its creativity and generosity.

448 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2018

Reviews

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just before bookshops closed this year, I 'ambushed' my local Waterstones with my xmas present, a E100 voucher. I don't know why I grabbed this off the shelf - I knew nothing about him or his art and am a writer not an artist - but I'm so glad that I did. This was such a good read, compelling in tone and content. It was also quite inspirational, watching how he came to the realisation that he would earn his living by his art. Aside from the Irish bank notes, his work was new to me but I fell in love with all the paintings that were reproduced here.

It is a diligent portrait of the artist in that he discusses everything, from his many commissions to the people he met as well as his struggles to make a living. What happened to his wife after she fell down the stairs at a restaurant was terrifying!

It is also an intelligent history of Ireland as well as an insight into the life of a working artist. As a writer, I love how he told his story and this storytelling extends to his work which sort of reminds me of Edward Hopper. I'm nervous writing about art as I can't draw and have never studied art history but I am a reader and can confidently recommend this book!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Ballagh is arguably Ireland's foremost living artist and this book, his reluctantly written memoirs, recounts his life and art. He has met and painted many interesting people (such as Charles Haughey, Gerry Adams and James Watson) and has interesting observations on them and on many aspects of Irish life and society over his lifetime (warning: from a strictly left viewpoint). Although his art seems to have been dismissed by the doyens of Irish modern art (the director of the Museum of Modern Art dismissing him as a mere illustrator) readers will see from the generous examples of his work throughout the book that he is a fine artist whose dedication to, and mastery of, realist painting is a refreshing contrast to the many works of modern art that leave the general public bemused (next, 'Crucifix in artist's urine' what am I bid?)

[E R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it- a painter would probably enjoy it even more! I found Robert Ballagh to have a very engaging way of writing which kept me interested at every stage. He has met lots of characters on his journey and it is dotted throughout with his wonderful creations. I’m probably biased as I always admired him as he has been such a good friend to the north of Ireland and the struggles the people here have had to endure.

[Bernard Goldbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

We met Robert Ballagh during a pre-COVID arts festival in Clonmel when he shared his stories about big art he installed years before in County Tipperary, Ireland.